14 Fourteen

"15 minutes." Mingyu said, turning his attention to the food before him. We were in the recording studio on the first floor of DayBreak Entertainment's building. We had all gathered there for lunch since the room was empty.

That was when I had gotten the text message.

"I'll buy you ice cream. 20 minutes." I smiled as sweetly as I could have.

"Manager-nim wants us to be ready to leave in 15 minutes." He shook his head. "You'll get 15 minutes."

"That's hardly much." I thought about it for a moment. "You had said that your headphones were not working? I'll buy you a new pair."

"This is bribe. Hyung, you're bribing me. Won't work." He shook his head yet again. "15 minutes."

"17 minutes."

"What sort of number is that even?" He gave me a weird look.

"It'll take you 3 minutes to actually go there and come back." Yeojun calculated. "Mingyu Hyung, just let him have his 20 minutes."

"Yeah. I mean, what kind of a leader are you if you can't even buy me five more minutes?" I clicked my tongue at him.

He stared at me. He was just trying to keep to the schedule but I wanted those five extra minutes. I needed them.

"You're wasting time by negotiating. "Jaehyeon intervened, still eating. "Just let him go, Mingyu. The earlier he goes, the earlier he returns."

"Fine." Mingyu finally gave in. "Hyung, 20 minutes. Not a second longer."

I checked my watch and noted the time. "Roger that." Without waiting any longer, I left for the dance practice room at a jog. Greeting staff members and others along the way, I finally reached my destination, opened the door and stepped in. All eyes were on me in an instant.

"Oh, Jeongwoo?" Hyeonwoo Sunbae, 04:00 am's leader, grinned on seeing me. "It's been a while."

"Choi Jeongwoo!" Jaemin Sunbae called aloud and waved from where he stood, arms outstretched, bent to the side around 90 degrees.

All seven members of the 04:00 am were present. They were stretching before practice.

"Hey." I smiled and bowed a little. "It's really been so long since I got to see all of you together."

"Congratulations are in order though. S.T.A.Y deserves this." Youngjae Sunbae said and then yawned. "Oh… I'm sorry. I'm just a little tired."

You literally just got back after being away from Seoul for 2 weeks. I can understand how hard that must be.

"Are you free now?" Baekjae Sunbae asked. He was helping Beomseok Sunbae with his stretching.

I shook my head and proceeded towards the man whom I had come to see. "I ran away. I have 20 minutes."

"Ran away?" Changmin asked. He was sitting on the floor, legs outstretched, trying to touch his toes.

"From lunch. It's okay." I crouched before him. "What's the big deal, Hyung? Texting me out of nowhere like that…"

The text that I had received was more of a statement than anything else. It simply read 'Dance practice room. Your turn.'

"'My turn' as in, 'my turn to come see you'?"

"I've gone and seen you quite a bit already. You could drop by to visit too, you know." He pouted. "It'd be nice to get a surprise visit every now and then."

"I want to, Hyung, but when I get the time, you're not even in Seoul." I pointed out, got up and went over to crouch behind him, starting to push against his back. Since I was here, I might as well help him stretch.

"Run away from more lunches."

"We discuss work over lunch too, you know. Mingyu's particular about these things. You have no idea how much I had to bribe him to get even 20 minutes. The others had to pitch in too."

"Bribe?" He chuckled, then grunted with the effort it took him to touch his toes. "Does that really work with him?"

"I'm not sure. I'm here now though so…" I shrugged.

"Our Hyeonwoo leadernim doesn't even care." Changmin glanced at their leader who was now doing some standing stretches. "The last time that I left practice to come see you, he just smiled understandingly when I returned."

"That's Hyeonwoo Sunbae. Mingyu isn't like that." I had no complaints though. He was good at managing us. He wasn't strict enough to be hated, as was evident from the fact that I was with Changmin just then. "How did you know that I'd be around?"

"I heard from Manager Kim." He replied. "He said that you'll have to leave soon so I tried my luck."

"I see." I pushed a little harder. This was actually quite nostalgic. It reminded me of the times when we used to practice together. We used to help each other with stretching often back then just like this. "Ah, right! Baekjae Sunbae!" I called on suddenly realising that this was the first time that I was meeting him in person after he passed the audition. "Congratulations on getting the lead role."

Baekjae Sunbae nodded and smiled. "You already texted me though."

"I did but… I wanted to tell you personally too." I admitted. "I'm looking forward to watching this."

"It'll take some time but I'm glad you are excited."

"I'll wait." You have more than proven yourself as an actor. For all that my admiration is worth, I will wait.

"Ooh. I guess we never noticed but… there seems to be a Baekjae fanboy right here." Hyeonwoo Sunbae whistled.

"Really, Jeongwoo? Baekjae's fan?" Jaemin Sunbae asked in amusement.

"Why not? Sunbae's good at what he does." I justified.

"Ah, Jeongwoo." Baekjae Sunbae smiled, a little embarrassed. "I'm honoured."

"Ooh. Baekjae fanboy~" Jaemin Sunbae laughed.

"Fanboy." Changmin grunted and sat up straight forcefully, against my pushing- forcefully to the extent that I actually lost balance and clutched his T-shirt so that I would not end up on my ass. "He doesn't need you as a fanboy."

"What? Jealous?" I hissed.

"You're here for me. I won't ever call you when Baekjae's around anymore." He stated. "Even last time…"

"Fine. Just finish your stretching for now." I returned to pushing against his back as the others went back to what they were doing.

Silence fell for a bit as Changmin resumed stretching, changing to sit facing me. Holding his hands tightly, I placed my feet on the inner side of his legs, just above his ankles and pushed. Such a stretch always hurt me in just a few seconds but Changmin was not even fazed by it.

"I heard you're going to Thailand."

"Yes, Hyung. Next month." I nodded.

"The way that things are going now, you might just see an international tour with your next album."

"I sure hope so." I couldn't help but feel a little excited on hearing someone with experience say that.

He gripped my hands tighter as he stretched a little more. He wasn't capable of doing the split but he sure as hell was flexible. "So… how long will you be gone this time?"

"Minimum 10 days." I winced a little. Why did it feel like I was getting a good stretch in too? "Manager-nim's planned quite the trip for us so far. Unless something else gets added to it, we should be back in 10 days."

"You're going to be gone for 10 days." He made a sad face.

I shook my head and chuckled. "It's actually not going to make much of a difference. You can call whenever you want to like you did during the Singapore trip. Even when we're both here, we meet once in way more than 10 days sometimes."

"Do you realise how sad that is already?"

"Stop it, Hyung. That's enough for now." I checked the time. I could stay for a few more minutes. "Let's talk about something else."

"Like how Kim PD-nim told Manager-nim in a casual conversation that he couldn't get 'To You' out of his head?" Changmin smiled.

"What? Kim PD-nim said that?!" I was so surprised that I momentarily actually stopped what I was doing.

"Apparently."

"That's… um." Woah. "I see. Thanks for telling me." I had not wanted to let it get to my head but being told something like that out of the blue was bound to put a smile on my face.

"Aw. Someone's happy~" Changmin sang and tilted his head to look at me rather adoringly.

"Of course, I am happy." I'm certain that the others would be just as happy too. "It's Kim PD-nim that we're talking about here!"

"It's well-deserved praise." He motioned for me to let go of his hands and I did, withdrawing my feet as well. He proceeded to stand up while I just sat there and pulled up my legs to hug my knees as I looked up at him. Facing me, he began doing some upper body stretches. "How's Jun doing nowadays?"

"He's okay. There are moments when he goes really quiet but… we're all here for him. We're managing. He's been banned from social media for a while though."

"The bashing he's received is no joke. It would kill anyone's spirit."

"They even managed to dig up some old fight that he had had with the members of his former dance crew D2." I watched Changmin earnestly. "That was a really bad phase for him although everything had been resolved later on. D2 themselves clarified that but you know how people can be."

"He's been handling shows and lives well though. I have to admit, he's a strong kid."

"He is." I nodded. "It's just… They can be really savage sometimes."

"Mm. What about you? Are you okay?"

"At this point, as long as Yeojun's okay, we're okay. No one else is being targeted. S.T.A.Y as a whole? Yeah, there are some who trash-talk us but we're doing fine." I smiled up at him. "Don't worry, Hyung."

"Okay. If you say so. However, talk to me, okay? If ever anything happens, I want to know from you. And I want to know before something really bad happens."

"I'm not a kid, Hyung. I'm 21."

"And I'm still your Hyung."

I sighed and gave in. "Fine."

He began doing some arm exercises next. Now that I got a chance to look closely, I realised that I wasn't the only one who had grown. He seemed a lot more fit than he was back then. He had always been fit but now, he seemed almost admirable. The hair and skin too. He really did have the face and physique of a world sensation K-Pop Idol.

"You're… really tall, Hyung." I commented, watching him.

"You're feeling that because you're looking up at me like that." He reasoned, albeit a little surprised by my comment.

I shook my head. "I just thought… You really are an Idol."

Now he just looked confused. "I've been an Idol for more than 4 years. You're an Idol too."

That's the whole point. "We really did become Idols." I smiled, a warmth growing in my chest. Considering where we once were and then looking at where we are, I felt incredibly proud.

He dropped his arms and crouched before me. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"Nothing. I was just genuinely appreciating how far we have come." I shrugged.

"Oh, yeah?" He reached out and tousled my hair, then proceeded to smooth it down. "You're giving me a heart-ache by being so cute about it though."

"The hell?" I laughed and moved his hand away, checking the time. "Will you ever stop looking at me like I am still 16?"

"Why? You'll always be my cute Jeongwoo-ya who used to follow me around everywhere." He smiled, a tender look in his eyes.

Now he was being a bully about it. "I don't follow you around anymore. You're the one following me around."

"Hm. Well, I guess some things have changed." He nodded, clearly unhappy about that reality.

"Hyung, my time is up for today." I sighed. It was unfortunate. "I have to go." I mouthed the latter part voicelessly and pulled myself onto my feet by his shoulder.

"Jeongwoo-ya." He supported himself on his knees and stood up. "After Thailand, save a night for me."

"Huh?"

"Let's get out, get a few drinks, have dinner."

"Now that I think about it… We've never gone drinking together." I realised. I was still underage when we used to hang out. "Fine. We'll go."

That made up for the fact that I was leaving just then, by the look on his face.

"Minho, Sunbae." I called out to the others. "I'm leaving now. I'll come by again when I can."

"It's nice to see you like this, Hyung." Minho said. "Although we hardly get a chance to actually interact. Changmin Hyung's too selfish."

Changmin was unbothered by that.

"Hang in there, Jeongwoo." Youngjae Sunbae said. "Don't pay attention to what the haters say."

Everyone at the agency knew about what S.T.A.Y was going through anyway. "Yes, Sunbae. Thank you."

"Tell everyone else too."

"I will."

"Bye, Jeongwoo-ya!" Jaemin Sunbae waved this time too.

"Jeongwoo, thank you." Baekjae Sunbae smiled warmly. "Do drop by again."

"Of course." I beamed. "See you all. Fighting!"

I left the practice room and began on my way to the recording studio. En route, I got a call from Jaehyeon saying that they were on their way to the basement parking lot and that he had taken all my things with him. I changed my course and went to the basement parking lot instead.